Gingrich Fan Starts a Super PAC

A Newt Gingrich fan in Texas has formed a new super PAC to support his candidate.

The group, called Winning Freedom, formally started up on Jan. 25. The online operation’s founder, Brandon Todd, runs several online firms in Texas that help patients obtain prescription drugs and Medicare supplemental insurance, including SelectCare Benefits Network and Medigap360.

Winning Freedom is not affiliated with the main independent Gingrich super PAC, Winning Our Future, and does not coordinate with the Gingrich campaign.

The PAC hasn’t disclosed its fund-raising totals, but it just filed new expenses reports with the Federal Election Commission totaling $61,374. As the Huffington Post reported, the PAC paid $55,648 of that amount for Internet advertising to SelectCare Benefits, whose CEO is Mr. Todd.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Todd, 37 years old, said he admires Mr. Gingrich’s views on several issues and believes in the new Contract With America.

Two years ago, Mr. Todd set up Teabook.org as a site for tea party proponents to chat online, form groups in their states. Last summer, Mr. Todd, who has donated $2,000 to Mr. Gingrich’s campaign, set up Newt Gingrich 360 as a similar site for Gingrich groupies. “It was doing really well, so I did the PAC,” he said.

Though there doesn’t seem to be an obvious connection between an online fee-for-service prescription drug firm and a presidential PAC, Mr. Todd said, “My companies have a lot of infrastructure to buy Internet advertising,” which SelectCare did. The $55,000 was reimbursement for the ad buy, he said.

Most of the roughly 10,000 members of Newt Gingrich 360 came aboard after the South Carolina primary, said Mr. Todd. A person with the Winning Our Future said he had not heard of Mr. Todd or his PAC until Monday’s news reports.

In 2008, SelectCare popped up in national news, when a number of consumers complained about prices the company charged to help patients with serious illnesses pay for expensive medicines. Those issues have been resolved, a company spokesman said.

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